So, how is that ‘green energy’ working out?

Posted on April 29, 2011 by steve

Remember all the fanfare when then Democrat Governor, Jennifer Granholm announced her vision of Michigan becoming the ‘advanced lithium ion battery ‘ capital?

Here is a recent Op-Ed from Jennifer Granholm (December 9th, 2010):

As last week’s jobs numbers reminded us, emerging from the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression isn’t going to be easy. We need to be creative and daring. We need a moon shot — a Jobs Race to the Top. The goal: Create 3 million jobs in three years.

It’s doable with an aggressive strategy. In Michigan, we are trying our own version of this race — focused on the lithium-ion advanced battery for electric cars, a high-tech product previously manufactured almost exclusively in Asia.

We offered irresistible state tax incentives for manufacturers of “advanced energy storage.” We pancaked our state incentives on top of the competitive federal Department of Energy grants to advanced-battery companies and suppliers. We also created robust public-private partnerships.

What she is trying to say is that she, and the Federal government, threw tons of money at these manufactures. Mrs. Granholm continues…

In just over a year, we have attracted 18 domestic and international companies, which are projected to create 63,000 private-sector jobs in Michigan. With breathtaking speed, we built an entire advanced-battery “ecosystem” for the purpose of electrifying the automobile.

What excuse do libs and environmentalists (I know, they are one in the same) use to push EV’s? The are always pushing the idea that we need to use lithium ion batteries to replace imported and ‘dangerous’ foreign oil. You know, from places like Canada and Mexico.

One big problem with this idea is… The United States does not have any significant reserves of lithium. We have known this for a long time.

However, this does not deter some intrepid lithium speculators. Check out this article outlining the performance of Lithium Corporation, who as you probably guessed, mines lithium in the US:

Lithium Corporation recently received approval from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to drill on its Cortez property. After the compilation of the fieldwork done to date, the company expects to submit another application soon to drill at Salt Wells.

The company is also looking at lithium brine properties in South America. Although, the company is focused to explore and develop lithium resources in the United States, the availability of lithium-enriched environments, and the interest of the major lithium producers and end users in South America suggests evaluation of opportunities in this region for the company.

As of December 31, 2010, Lithium Corporation has accumulated losses of $1,093,386 since inception and has earned no revenues since inception. The company’s strategy moving forward is to fund operations through equity financing arrangements, which may be insufficient to fund its capital expenditures, working capital and other cash requirements for the year ending December 31, 2011.

Sure, the BLM will approve ‘drilling’ for lithium, but not oil. And, ironically they can’t make any money.

Time Laps Video Of Milky Way

Posted on April 27, 2011 by steve

This is amazing…

Via Vimeo:

This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide.

Spain´s highest mountain @(3718m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the worlds best observatories.

UK Cops Confiscate Farmers Legally Owned Shotguns “As a Precaution”

Posted on April 27, 2011 by steve

You know what they say about what starts in Europe…

Officers took 35 minutes to arrive after she was threatened with chainsaws and knives

She was pelted with rocks while a youth threatened to slit her throat and slaughter her cattle

Having confronted travellers cutting down trees on her farm, terminally-ill Tracy St Clair Pearce found herself subjected to a terrifying ordeal.

Some of the group pelted her with rocks while a youth threatened to slit her throat and slaughter her cattle.

When she dialled 999 she expected the full weight of the law to be on her side.

Instead, however, police officers criticised her for inflaming the situation and confiscated her legally held shotguns – even though they had been locked away in a cabinet at home throughout the incident.

Yesterday, the 50-year-old accused police of causing her ‘harassment and distress’ when she should have been given protection.

‘I’ve been treated like a criminal,’ said Miss St Clair Pearce, who has been given months to live after breast cancer spread to her spine.

Then the police confiscated her two shotguns…

At 3.15am yesterday armed officers appeared and demanded the firearms otherwise they would ‘pull the cabinet from the wall’.

Left with no choice, Miss St Clair Pearce told her brother where she kept the key and he handed the weapons over.

Officers returned later yesterday and confiscated her gun licence to ‘prevent me buying another shotgun’.

The police took the law abiding citizens shotguns as, you know, a precaution.

The Long Shadow Of The Progressives: Looking Backward

Posted on April 26, 2011 by steve

Does this sound familiar?

The year 2011 marks the 123rd year since the publication of Edward Bellamy’s famous utopian novel, Looking Backward, in which the author depicted a happy, socialist America in the year 2000. In Bellamy’s optimistic fantasy, greed and material want ceased to exist, brotherly harmony prevailed, the arts and sciences flourished, and an all-powerful and pervasive government and bureaucracy were efficient and fair.

Bellamy envisaged America becoming socialist by way of consensus rather than revolution. In turn, Dewey, who spent his professional life trying to transform Bellamy’s vision into American reality, saw education as the principle means by which this transformation could be achieved. He spent the years 1894 to 1904 at the University of Chicago in his Laboratory School seeking to devise a new curriculum for the public schools that would produce the kind of socialized youngsters who would bring about the new socialist millenium.

The result, of course, is the education we have today — a minimal interest in the development of intellectual, scientific, and literacy skills and a maximal effort to produce socialized, politically correct, individuals who can barely read.

Today, many years later, the University of Chicago stands as an island of academic tranquility in Chicago’s Southside, surrounded by a sea of social and urban devastation caused by the philosophical emanations from Dewey’s laboratory and other departments. Charles Judd, the university’s Wundtian professor of educational psychology, labored mightily to organize the radical reform of the public school curriculum to conform with Dewey’s socialist plan.

According to Dewey, the philosophical underpinning of capitalism is individualism sustained by an education that stressed the development of literacy skills. High literacy encourages intellectual independence which produces strong individualism. It was Dewey’s exhaustive analysis of individualism that led him to believe that the socialized individual could only be produced by first getting rid of the traditional emphasis on language and literacy in the primary grades and turning the children toward socialized activities and behavior.

Be sure to read the rest.

Detroit City Government Is Overstaffed… Way Overstaffed

Posted on April 25, 2011 by steve

If you read the Detroit News, you would’ve read this today:

Detroit overstaffed compared to other cities

You would also see a flawed graph pointing out that there are approximately 12,900 city employees in Detroit or, to slice it another way, 55 residents for every city employee.

However, if you read motorcitytimes.com, you would’ve read that Detroit’s two largest employers , by far, are the city itself and Detroit Public Schools.

This unsustainable employment unbalance between public and private sector employment is a direct result of Detroit putting government front and center in its economy much like what Washington is doing today. Nearly half of the people working at Detroit’s top 20 twenty employers do not contribute anything to its economy (government, including education, is an expense) and in fact subtract from the economy.

The Detroit News chart is flawed because they neglected to include the Detroit Public school employees. They should also point out that there is a significant contingent of state and federal employees within the city that don’t contribute to Detroit’s economy.

Did Total Employment Move Sideways Over The Last Decade?

Posted on April 23, 2011 by steve

One of my favorite economic web sites, Calculated Risk, posted this a few days ago:

There are currently 130.738 million payroll jobs in the U.S. (as of March 2011). There were 130.781 million payroll jobs in January 2000. So that is over eleven years with no increase in total payroll jobs.

And the median household income in constant dollars was $49,777 in 2009. That is barely above the $49,309 in 1997, and below the $51,100 in 1998. (Census data here in Excel).

Just a reminder that many Americans have been struggling for a decade or more. The aughts were a lost decade for most Americans.

While on the surface it is true there are roughly 130 million jobs in March 2011, just as there were in January 2000. However, these numbers don’t tell the entire story.

click for a larger version

Looking at a graph (frequent visitors to MCT, you know how I like graphs) of employment data from the BLS, you will notice that the US economy added just over 5 million jobs between January 2001 and January 2008. Not too bad.

The real story is how the solid labor market growth experienced between 2003 and 2008 was extinguished once liberal Democrats seized power January 3rd, 2007.

Furthermore, the economic meltdown accelerated when the smart money moved away from equities late 2008. They saw the writing on the wall once it became apparent the liberals were going to expand their power and reach in 2009.

Looking at the BLS graph again, didn’t peak employment occur in 2008?

Friday Night Links: The Futuristic Retro Cell Phone Edition

Posted on April 22, 2011 by steve

I saw this rendering of a futuristic retro cell phone and thought it was kinda cool.

I wonder how texting would work with a rotary dial.

Jack Wiley Dithers Exclusive: Secret Oval Office Meeting Tapes

Spellchek:

We have a Constitutional crisis at hand. A bit dramatic you may say? I would say the issue isn’t even debatable. In fact, I would argue that we’ve even moved beyond that into a post-Constitutional period. The extremists at work today have learned to utilize a tact that doesn’t bring the Constitution into the center of the debate. This is by design. They don’t want us to be backed into a corner and have to decide one or the other. They have learned to shift the argument elsewhere. What this does is still get to their goal in an indirect manner by making the Constitution irrelevant. That is the backbone of the strategy employed by progressives everywhere.

Be sure to read the rest.

Government Cash Handouts Now Top Tax Payments, First Time Since Great Depression

Good Friday Video: My Last Day

Earth Day: Is it Just One Big Communist Plot? —- I would say yes it is.

Fleece: The curious opposition of capital punishment and abortion

CoF: More on S&P Debt Warning

Good Friday – At The Cross, Hillsong

The Eye: Taco Bell Seeks Apology from Law Firm for Dropped Class Action Suit

What Dr. Evil wants…. Frikkin’ laser beams

Gun Toting, Bible Thumping, Bitter Americans: Let’s Get this Over With! — Great name for a great blog.

Envirostatist Day

Obama Thinks You’re an Idiot

Mexican Government May Sue American Gun Makers

FCBZ: Google’s Earth Day Tribute

2012 VW Beetle

Posted on April 22, 2011 by steve

click for larger image

According to the VW web site:

David Shepardson of The Detroit News writes, “The company hopes to regain the luster of the iconic Beetle brand that remains one of the best known auto brands by appealing to more men—as the original version did” by “aiming to shed the ‘chick car’ label.” Shepardson goes on to quote VW design brand chief Klaus Bischoff, who says, “The Beetle is now characterized by a clean, self-confident and dominant sportiness,” adding that VW “wanted the vehicle to be more sporty, dynamic and masculine.” We’d say he more than achieved that. Kudos, Klaus!

click for larger version

I like the new look of this Beetle, and agree it is a lot less a ‘chick’ car that the previous model.

Earth Day 2011: “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Posted on April 22, 2011 by steve

“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”

Vladimir Lenin

I always find it odd that “Earth Day” occurs on Vladimir Lenin’s birthday (April 22nd). I’m sure it is only a coincidence that they chose today as Earth Day and that the environmental movement is, at its core, designed to extinguish capitalism.

Skyrocketing electricity prices… Sounds like a key component of inflation to me. Michigan’s former Governor, Democrat Jenifer Granholm was, and still is, a big time supporter of ‘green energy.’ The following graph shows the results of her push for ‘green energy.’

It is no coincidence that Michigan’s economy has been in the basement as well.